Poor, Poor Ennis
by Kylie-Chan
Summary: Lureen thinks about her relationship Jack and her conversation with Ennis.


A/N: I was watching Brokeback Mountain again last night and this came to me. I like getting into character's heads; it's interesting.

Disclaimer: I don't own Brokeback Mountain; it belongs to Annie Proulx.

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Lureen Newsome Twist was not a happy woman. She rarely smiled anymore, unless Bobby showed her some trick he learned at school. Bobby was really the only thing that kept her goin' anymore. Bobby and the company. Sometimes, if she focused hard enough on the numbers she was crunching, she'd forget about everything, including Jack Twist. _Especially_ Jack Twist.

Oh, once, she thought she'd be happy with him. He was so handsome and funny; he had a unique sort of boyish charm that drew her in like a moth to a flame. Her daddy didn't like him from the start, but Lureen didn't care. She was young and in love. When she had Bobby and saw the glowing look on Jack's face, she really thought that theirs would be long and good marriage.

Then, not too much later, Jack started to go see his old buddy, Ennis Del Mar. She never met him before; she never did get to, either. Ennis never came down to Texas, something she thought was mighty unfair. Jack never seemed to mind.

Then their marriage slowly lost its passion, until all that kept them together was their son. Lureen still loved Jack, but it was more habitual than anything. They fucked a few times every once in awhile, but for the most part, they didn't even sleep in the same bed.

When Jack died, she did not cry. She arranged the funeral, kept herself busy, went to the funeral, then cremated him. It was like a list of chores, and as long as she didn't have to think about it, she would be fine. There were only two times that she actually lost her composure and cried. Once when Bobby pretended to rodeo, and he just looked _so_ _much_ like Jack that she couldn't help it. The other time was when ol' Ennis Del Mar called. It was the first and last time she ever talked to him.

He called himself Jack's buddy on the phone, and by that time, Lureen thought she had a pretty good idea about what kind of 'buddy' Ennis was. The way Jack would seem to just light up when he knew he was going to see Ennis and the way he smiled when he talked about him- when was the last time Jack had smiled at _her_ that way? The conversation brought up questions that she really didn't want to answer about their relationship. Ennis hadn't asked them; no, he just wanted to know about Jack. It was Lureen's own mind that brought them up.

Was Jack queer? Whom did he love more? Did he ever really love her at all? That was when the tears started up, but she kept her voice as clear as she could. She was not going to break down on the phone with some stranger on the other end, whom she was pretty sure had been seeing her husband since before they even married.

However, she did tell him about Jack's wishes to have his ashes scattered across Brokeback Mountain. She didn't know if it was real or not, but she had a feeling that if anyone knew, it would be Ennis. She may not have loved Jack much by the end, but she'd still cared about him, and she figured it'd be good for him to have his last wishes to be carried out.

And she also felt a little sorry for Ennis. She didn't know him and most certainly never wanted to, but she could hear something in his voice, something strangely painful and hollow, after she told him how Jack died…it made her think of how her own voice had sounded after the funeral. She supposed she was a right fool, feeling sympathy for such a man, but Lureen never was all that good at holding grudges.

In a weird way, she'd felt akin to him. They both loved Jack, at one point or another. And now that he was gone, she sensed that she was not the only one left picking up the pieces of what used to be her life. And maybe, she thought, just maybe, that man had loved Jack more than she had. Maybe he still did. When that occurred to her, she could only think one thing:

Poor Ennis. Poor, poor Ennis.


End file.
